Investing In Your Body: Your Back

Have you ever had one of those long, many miles, lotsa weight, harsh terrain, if you stop you'll have to deal with it, days? "Ow my back!"is one of the most common complaints I hear, mostly from myself or my dog (he's a big whiner), but from others too... sometimes. But I don't need to tell you this. if you've ever had "one of those days", than you know exactly what I'm talking about. Your back is one of the most important body parts you need to take care of as a nature junkie; many days with a backpack (which is totally not natural for us) or marathon type distance events can be an amazing experience but destroy your back if you don't treat it right.

*Photo Above Right: Pack light and load gear correctly*

*Photo Below: Attempting to curl back reversed in car*

More than 50% of all Americans have some sort of back problem in their life (short or long term). Most back problems are simply due to tension and muscular tightness, which come from poor posture, being overweight, inactivity, and lack of abdominal strength. Stretching and abdominal exercises can help your back if done with common sense. Also, you spend roughly a quarter of your life asleep, this is when your body heals and realigns itself. So if you're sleeping at a 20 degree angle all crunched up on cardboard and cotton your back isn't going to be pleased in the morning when you awake expecting a full range of motion. If you're really going full sail into this try looking into a sleep specialist, they can help you find out a lot about how you sleep, info which you can then use in choosing a sleep system. But in general you need to realize that sitting, standing, moving, sleeping, and all other types of movement have an affect on your body and make up the daily treatment of such an important area. My chiropractor has always told me three things when it comes to my back's health...

1.) It's accumulative. It gets worse as people age, often not caused by one single event.
2.) Prevention is better than cure. Once you have a chronic back problem it's very difficult to cure. Avoid a back problem at the first place. If you take good care of your back, your back will take good care of you.
3.) Our habits of common activities such as sitting, standing, and sleeping are not good to our back. We have to change our habit if we want to save our back.

Ask yourself these questions to help diagnose back problems.

1.) Has any recent event caused any pain?

2.) Is it more painful in the morning or in the afternoon?

3.) Besides backache, do you feel any pain in other parts of your body such as legs, arms, and shoulder?

4.) Does the pain go away or get better when you lay down flat?

5.) Is your mid, upper, or lower back that is bothering you?

If you feel any of these have become a problem for you seek the opinion of your doctor or a good chiropractor, and remember that one opinion is good but more opinions are better. The next section discusses ways to prevent back problems, make sure that you take this with a grain of salt and remember that these may not be true for everyone. I can't stress enough how important it is to make an informed decision about what lifestyle changes you make or exercises you add to daily life.

Tips for a Healthy Happy Back

1.) Lift with muscles on arms and legs. Do not use your back to lift things such as boxes, babies, etc. Avoid putting any pressure on your back. Do not hold heavy things to walk around for too long. Use a dolly or roller instead. Or ask someone with a strong back to help. When pick up things from the floor, use your legs to get up. Try to avoid bending your back.

2.) Always have back support when sitting, including when riding a car. The back must be in contact with something such as cushion. Avoid sitting for too long without back support. Sitting on the floor or ground is a bad idea. Do not sit on your desk with your upper body leaning forward for too long. Change your position from time to time. During a rough ride on a car, wear seat belt to help "fixing" your body to the seat and back support.

3.) Choose the type of chair very carefully. The arm rests must have proper height. Choose the keyboard height carefully to make sure your hands are not blocked to give extra pressure to your back while typing. The seat should not be too big in comparison with your hip. Otherwise, you would sit in front of your seat too long and get your back away from the support.

4.) Get up from bed on the side using arms to push your body up instead of using your back to "fold" up facing up.

5.) When sleeping, have a second pillow under the knees so that the back is slightly curved to release extra pressure from the flat bed. Try to sleep on the side sometimes with the back "curling up" - without any pressure to the back.

6.) Choose bed carefully. Not too firm; not too soft. Some people love water bed. What ever you can afford and makes you comfortable.

*Photo Right: How I sit at my desk, not exactly proper*

7.) Exercise to strengthen the back muscle. There are specific exercises that are designed to make your back muscle stronger. If the back muscle is stronger, it gives more support to your back.

8.) When standing, try to change position frequently. Raise one of your feet slightly from time to time and change the feet. When riding a train, try to get some back support to cushion the force from the running train. Whenever you can, find a seat to sit down while riding a bus or train. When climbing stairs, use rails and arms to help whenever you can. When in elevator, support your back by leaning against the wall or rail.

9.) Our back bends forward most of the time. Try to bend to the back sometimes to balance it out. Stretch it!

10.) Avoid injuries to your back during car accidents and sports such as skiing. Well, sometimes it's out of our control. But while having fun, do not over do it. Avoid twisting your back and waist. Always warm up before exercise.

11.) Try cold patches immediately after injuries and warm patches during recovery. Do not wear back support too tight for too long. It reduces blood circulation.

12.) If the problem is not that serious, the best cure is to rest! Sleep. Lay down. Do not use your back for an extended period of time. If that still does not help, see a doctor or take some pain medicine. Sitting is better than standing. Laying down is better than sitting.

13.) Physical therepy is expensive but effective. You can do it yourself though if you know how. The main "tricks" behind physical therepy are: (a) exercise specific muscle after warming up; (b) take a rest with warm patch after the exercise; (c) repeat of (a) and (b) over and over; (d) educate the "patient" to do these tasks themselves.

14.) Not that I discourage a healthy, um... appetite... well... avoid... having too much... you know... wild jungle rompus ;)


Stay happy, stay healthy, I'll see you on the trail!
~Eco